Having this terrible possible doom continually before his mind’s
optics, he felt that it would be only the part of prudence to
avoid the company of those black art professors in whose presence
he could not keep all his feelings well in hand. So, no more
wizards would he visit, but the witches should henceforth have
his entire attention.
It is a fortunate circumstance that there are no other men than
the aforesaid Doctor Wilson, in the witch business in New York,
so that there would be no temptation to break this resolve, and
he probably would not be troubled to keep it.
There is one breed of the modern witch that pretends to a sort of
superiority in blood and manners, and those who practise this
peculiar branch of the business put on certain aristocratic airs
and utterly refuse to consort with those of another stamp. They
disdain the title of “Astrologers,” or “Astrologists,” as most of
them phrase it, and in their advertisements utterly repudiate the
idea that they are “Fortune Tellers.”
These are the “Clairvoyants,” who do business by means of certain
select mummeries of their own, and who make a great deal of money
in their trade. There are a great number of these in the city, so
many indeed that the business is over-done, and the price of
retail clairvoyance has come materially down. The same dose of
this article that formerly cost five dollars, may now be had for
fifty cents, and the quality is not deteriorated, but is quite as
good now as it ever was.
To one of these supernatural women did the hero resolve to pay
his next visit, and he selected the abode of Mrs. Hayes, of 176
Grand Street, for his initiatory consultation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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